New Gene Wolfe, China Mieville and Paolo Bacigalupi offerings from Subterranean

Subterranean will be publishing limited editions of Gene Wolfe's upcoming Home Fires and China Mieville's Embassytown, as well as Paolo Bacigalupi's award-winning The Windup Girl. So far Wolfe's book is the only one that has a cover art (above). As for the other two, Embassytown will once again feature a dust jacket by Vincent Chong who did Kraken, and The Windup Girl will feature the two short stories that the novel grew from, as well as a new introduction by the author and interior illustration. More information on those books when it becomes available. Personally, all three of them look very tempting to me.

2010 In Retrospect

I read a staggeringly small amount of books this year (you will notice that only two of my choices were actually published in 2010), due to life coming out of nowhere to intervene with my quiet geekiness. Also, this is the first time I've ever actually had to do this kind of thing, so I decided to keep it modest. If - Xenu willing - I'm here next year, I'll probably put more thought into the task.

So, here's

Roland's Random Lists of 2010:

Best books of 2010:



1. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Review)
There is absolutely no competition for my first place this year. Bacigalupi's environmental dystopia is easily one of the best books I've ever read, and I am happy it got all the acclaim it deserved. I am expecting great things from Bacigalupi, and can't wait to read his novella The Alchemist, if only to see what he would do when unleashed on the Fantasy field.



2. Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Review)
After the first slightly uncertain steps Tchaikovsky made in his debut novel Empire in Black and Gold (review here), the second book in his Shadows of the Apt series showed how grand his world really is, and how much more complex it will get in future novels. The totemic relationship between kindens and their insect avatars, as well as the steampunk elements make for one of the most original epic fantasy worlds in a long time. The fact that Tchaikovsky seems to be getting better with each new novel doesn't really hurt either.



3. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Review)
I honestly didn't know what to expect from Doctorow's dystopic YA tale when I started reading it. I am allergic to books that are too "savvy" when it comes to the techno-slang and online culture, but in this case the balance between that and actually good story-telling turned out to be so good that I instantly fell in love with the book.



4. Leviathan Wept and Other Stories by Daniel Abraham (Review)
Although slightly underwhelming - after the hype I'd been exposed to - Daniel Abraham's short story collection was among the events of 2010, and definitely shows an amazing storytelling potential. A name to pay attention to, without a shadow of doubt.



5. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (Review)
Although not the best of the series (that honor falls to Mistborn (review here, and here for The Well of Ascension)), The Hero of Ages was a great and mind-bogglingly epic conclusion to one of the best fantasy trilogies written in a long time. Sanderson's detractors keep pointing out his "shyness" when it comes to the topic of relationships and sex, as well as his two-dimensional characters, but in truth, the Mistborn series was almost a text-book example of how to do high fantasy without being numbingly cliche about it. And of course there is the gloriously good magic system(s) that seems to be Sanderson's trademark.


Author of 2010:



Brandon Sanderson
He may not be the brightest literary star in the fantasy genre (it's hard with competition such as George Martin, Gene Wolfe, Scott Bakker or Steven Erikson), but regardless of whether you're a fan or not, Sanderson's success can't be denied. 2010 saw the publication of three of his novels, and the guy doesn't seem to ease up or slip in terms of quality. To be as prolific and consistent is no small feat, and I believe it deserves recognition. As well as the fact that - my respects to both the late Robert Jordan and his most dedicated fans - he is single-handedly saving The Wheel of Time from an underwhelming and disappointing ending while writing with a speed three times that of its creator. So how was your 2010?


Biggest disappointment of 2010:



The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Review)
Yes, I know this book is on the top places in most other people's "best of" lists, and of course I'm not putting it in this category because I think it's bad. It just didn't connect with me in any conceivable way, and I felt it was completely unequal to the praise it got. And although Ian McDonald is obviously an amazingly talented writer, both this book and the 3/4 of Desolation Road that I read make me think that he just doesn't have the spark that makes the reader actually want to go on reading his work. Or at least he definitely doesn't have the spark that makes me want to...


Discovery of 2010:



Paolo Bacigalupi
There was a pretty big list of names to chose from, considering most of the writers I read this year I had no previous experience with. But Bacigalupi is easily the most promising of all of them, and I can't wait to read his next mature novel. Of course, my mild dislike of environmental themes might ultimately ruin the relationship, but so far it's all going so well...


Most underwhelming new voice of 2010:



Jon Sprunk
I feel slightly penisy for doing that, especially considering that Sprunk's Shadow's Son (review here) wasn't half-bad. Thing is, it was way, way, WAY too predictable and "by the numbers". I'd read it before. Many times. And in some cases more interestingly written. I guess that's the curse of the time we live in - you can only use the classical tropes if you are really amazing with them (Patrick Rothfuss), or if you introduce new elements (Adrian Tchaikovsky). And since Jon Sprunk did neither of those things, Shadow's Son read like something... tired. You don't want that from a debut novel. I am having my fingers crossed for the second part in the series to do better; I think Sprunk has the potential for that.


The books I'm most sorry I didn't get around to:

This is just a list of the titles I really wanted to check out, but couldn't read this year. There's no particular order to it.

Kraken by China Mieville
Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan
The Sorcerer's House by Gene Wolfe
Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson
The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham
The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
The Living Dead and The Living Dead 2 anthologies by John Joseph Adams
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Anything by Glen Cook, Michael Moorcock, Alastair Reynolds, Paul Kearney, K.J. Parker and Richard Morgan


Well, that's all folks. 2011 promises to be utterly amazing on the SFF front, and I hope I have more time to dedicate to that, as the amount of forthcoming books I HAVE TO read is slightly scary. But anyway, Happy New Year to everyone, and I hope you didn't make any NY resolutions, as those are lame, but I also hope the year turns out to be all you're hoping it to be!

Cover art for Paolo Bacigalupi's novella The Alchemist

Subterranean revealed the art for Paolo Bacigalupi's upcoming novella The Alchemist. It is done by J. K. Drummond, whose previous work for Daniel Abraham's Leviathan Wept and Other Stories was really amazing. Here's the blurb:

Magic has a price. But someone else will pay.

Every time a spell is cast, a bit of bramble sprouts, sending up tangling vines, bloody thorns, and threatening a poisonous sleep. It sprouts in tilled fields and in neighbors’ roof beams, thrusts up from between street cobbles, and bursts forth from sacks of powdered spice. A bit of magic, and bramble follows. A little at first, and then more— until whole cities are dragged down under tangling vines and empires lie dead, ruins choked by bramble forest. Monuments to people who loved magic too much.

In paired novellas, award-winning authors Tobias Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi explore a shared world where magic is forbidden and its use is rewarded with the axe. A world of glittering memories and a desperate present, where everyone uses a little magic, and someone else always pays the price.

In the beleaguered city of Khaim, a lone alchemist seeks a solution to a deadly threat. The bramble, a plant that feeds upon magic, now presses upon Khaim, nourished by the furtive spellcasting of its inhabitants and threatening to strangle the city under poisonous vines. Driven by desperation and genius, the alchemist constructs a device that transcends magic, unlocking the mysteries of bramble’s essential nature. But the power of his newly-built balanthast is even greater than he dreamed. Where he sought to save a city and its people, the balanthast has the potential to save the world entire—if it doesn’t destroy him and his family first.

I'm pretty excited about this. Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl was among the best novels I've read this year, and it wasn't a surprise that it got both the Nebula and the Hugo. The Alchemist is coming out next January, and so does its companion - The Executioness by Tobias S. Buckell.

The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi is a relatively new name in the genre, but obviously one to pay close attention to. His debut, The Windup Girl, won first the Nebula for best novel, and then - just a few days ago - the Locus for best debut novel. It is also a finalist for the Hugo, and in my personal opinion fully deserves to win.

The Windup Girl is a "biopunk" story, set in a world where Global Warming has raised the sea levels and Carbon fuel sources are almost depleted. Biotechnology is the dominant science, and its forerunners are the "Calorie Companies" - megacorporations that control most of the world through the iron grip of food production. No natural sources of food could survive the engineered plagues and pests that ravage the ecosystem, and only the Calorie Companies have the knowledge and resources to stay ahead of unstoppable mutations, various new strains and their rivals' newest bio-threats. To add insult to injury, most of those threats are deadly to humans as well, and so people live in constant fear of plague and starvation.

The story is set in the city of Bangkok in the Thai Kingdom - one of the last countries thriving without the help of the Calorie Companies whose representatives are forbidden to set foot on its soil. The Thai possess an unimaginable treasure - a seedbank holding specimens of the extinct natural flora - and the megacorporations want to get their hands on this genetic wealth. But the triumvirate running the Kingdom - the Somdet Chaopraya, regent of the Child Queen; General Pracha, head of the Environmental Ministry; and Akkarat, leader of the Trade Ministry - are holding the threats at bay.

Into this tapestry are woven the stories of five characters. Anderson Lake, an agent of one of the Calorie Companies, trying to find a way into the seedbank; Hock Seng, an illegal "yellow card" immigrant - survivor of the Malaysian purge of the ethnic Chinese - who works as Lake's secretary in the factory he uses for a cover; Jaidee Rojjanasukchai, the "Tiger of Bangkok", an idealist captain of the White Shirts (the enforcement wing of the Environmental Ministry), who becomes involved in the intrigues between General Pracha and Minister Akkarat; his lieutenant and protegee, Kanya, who is not what she seems to be. And the Windup Girl herself - Emiko - a Japanese "New People" construct, the product of a race that grows its soldiers, workers, secretaries and geishas in vats. Called "Windups" because of the tell-tale stutter-stop motions built in their genomes, the New People are the spine of Japanese economy. Bred to be the perfect secretary and companion, Emiko serves her master unquestioningly, her whole being designed to be submissive. But when it turns out that a ticket for her return trip to Japan would cost more than for her master to just buy a new secretary when he gets home, she is abandoned in Bangkok - a place where her very existence is an abomination, where she hasn't even got the right to live, and where her extremely smooth, almost pore-less skin leads to constant overheating. Her condition is exploited by a man named Rileigh, who uses her as entertainment in his brothel.

Their stories intertwine, while building tensions threaten to drown the city in a civil war between the warring factions of the government. Bacigalupi paints a picture of an irreparably damaged world that tries to get back on its feet while malicious forces strive to control the lives of billions with biotechnological monopoly. After the "Contraction", following the collapse of Western Civilization, the time has come for a new Expansion, and the Calorie Companies would direct it if given the chance. But evolution has taken a new course, and in this ever changing nightmarish reality the only ones who cling to the old order are the humans themselves.

The Windup Girl is a warning environmental tale of what could happen after the depletion of fossil fuels, and where development of bioengineering may lead us. Not all technologies are overly believable (the kink-springs for example take some disbelief suspending), and most characters give out mixed signals to say the least (when they aren't outright scheming opportunists), but somehow it all works in concert with the magnificent world-building, making Bacigalupi's debut novel a brilliant work of Science Fiction, and one that really deserves all the praise it's been getting.

9/10